Syrian Smugglers Jailed in Death of Alan Kurdi

There has been a new development in the tragic story of Alan Kurdi, the three-year-old Syrian migrant who drowned six months ago off Turkey.

The shocking picture of a police officer carrying Alan’s body gripped the world, highlighting the plight of Syrians who are trying to reach Europe as they escape their country’s five-year-old civil war.

Turkey’s state-run news agency, Anadolu agency, says a court has sentenced two Syrian smugglers to four years and two months in prison for the deaths of Alan, his brother Galip, their mother, Rehan Kuridi, and two other people. They drowned after the boat they were travelling on from Bodrum to the Greek island of Kos sank.

Muwafaka Alabash and Asem Alfrhad were convicted of human smuggling, but were acquitted of a charge of causing the deaths through deliberate negligence.

According to officials at the International Organisation for Migration, over 120,000 people have arrived in Greece from Turkey so far this year, and at least 321 have died en route.